Books on Understanding on Graphs and Charts

Question

I'm about to code some graphs and charts from scratch. Does anyone know of book that covers the reason for using some graphs and charts as well as the implementation of graph and charts. I'd prefer something combined computer science and the math of charts and graphs. Acceptable languages would be C, C++, but especially Objective-C

Answer 1

About the reason of using some graphs: Chart Suggestions

Answer 2

I do not think you will find the whys ("the reason for using") covered anywhere nearly as well as the works of Tufte -- ever since his first book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, he's deservedly been hailed as THE guru on this subject.

However, he's got nothing to say on the HOW -- the implementation issues (neither on CS grounds nor on maths): his focus is on communicating effectively to human beings (as opposed to HOW to implement this, that or yonder form).

I do not know of any one book that covers maths, CS issues, implementation in a specific language, AND the much-harder issues of WHY at the same time (why "pie charts" are the very worst form of graph EVER, unless your purpose is to cleverly conceal information, for example -- can you even imagine a book that first explains why you should never ever implement those even if your manager's commanding you to AND holds your dear grandmother hostage, and then proceed to explain HOW to implement them in Objective C...?-).

So I think you should sharpen your intended target: either get the WHY (then, Tufte all over the place!-), or the HOW (then a specific framework as well as language would be best spectified -- if Objective C, I guess Cocoa...?-), or be ready to get suggestions for twenty books, not ONE!-)